Rent Vs Buy: Its All Different In Manhattan

May 10, 2012 5:49 pm

We had written some stuff on Rent Vs Buy before – but remember, it is all relative – you always need to know the location. That makes all the difference. So we were not surprised when we spotted this today:

“in the nation as a whole, houses look like they’re a pretty good value, relative to rents, for the first time in many years. …

The most striking thing, of course, is how expensive New York is relative to the country as a whole: that huge spike in the original chart now just looks like more of a foothill.

But it’s also clear that even with record-low interest rates, Manhattan prices are still a lot higher than Manhattan rents.

It wasn’t always that way. Rents were higher than prices from the fourth quarter of 1994 through the fourth quarter of 1999 — a full five years, during which prices rose from $227,500 to $320,000. Which in hindsight was a great time to buy, seeing as how prices now are at $775,000”